Poland And The Pact Of Steel

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VERSAILLES TO POLAND AND THE PACT OF STEEL

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WWII* Chapter 1

Events cease to be of our own time, and acquire the perspective of history, suddenly yet unobtrusively. To those who fought against, or suffered under the tyrannies of the Second World War, or who were brought up during those turbulent years, the transition happened quite recently - perhaps during the late Sixties or early Seventies. For those born since the greatest war man has yet known, images and recollections of the Second World War seem quaintly old-fashioned; as much a thread of the tapestry of time as the Black Death or the Spanish Armada. In either case, the sense of detachment that historical perspective provides makes it possible to view both the war itself, and the events that led to its outbreak, with a degree of balanced judgement and impartiality that would have been impossible when the War was still part of the world's immediate experience.
Yet, although the Second World War has undeniably become part of the fabric of history, its effects and consequences shape the very structure of our lives and the politics of the governments under which we live. No previous conflict has had as great an influence upon subsequent events and thought. Most of the wars of history have resolved a dispute, asserted sovereignty, or suppressed rebellion without causing major long-term changes to the course of world history, culture or political thinking. The Second World War was the War that nobody wanted, that everybody expected, and from which only the USSR gained territorial advantage, albeit at huge cost. So how did it happen?